Doc. 11302 Report 279. Today I think I am in a position to reconstruct the circumstances of Mr El-Masri’s return from Afghanistan: he was flown out of Kabul on 28 May 2004 on board a CIA-chartered Gulfstream aircraft with the tail number N982RK to a military airbase in Albania called Bezat-Kuçova Aerodrome.224We have obtained primary data on this extraordinary homeward rendition from three separate sources and we are able to publish the relevant flight logs from the Marty database as an appendix to this report.225 280. Our team was first alerted to an unusual “flight circuit” through European airspace on the date in question by a submission from the national aviation authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.226The submission cited three “diplomatic permissions for state aircraft,” which it said had been issued in relation to “flight movements for the needs of CIA, USA”. The most relevant of these permissions, of which I subsequently obtained a copy,227was described as follows: “On the 26 May 2006 permission [was] issued to the company ‘RICHMOR AVIATION’ [sic] for traveller charter flight on the day of 28 May 2004. Line: Auki/Gwaunaru’u – Sarajevo – Prag. Aircraft type: Gulsstrim III [sic], Registration N982RK, which is also its call sign.” 281. Three elements of this permission caught our attention: the role of the charter company Richmor Aviation;228the outlandish notion that a Gulfstream III would fly to Sarajevo from the Solomon Islands airport of Auki/Gwaunaru’u;229and the mention of 28 May 2004, which we knew as the date on which Khaled ElMasri was released. The first of these elements was the key to our locating the flight logs for the N982RK aircraft; the second was evidence of a smokescreen on the part of the CIA to cover up the aircraft’s actual arrival from Bezat-Kuçova Aerodrome; and the third was the match we had been looking for to solve the mystery of the circumstances of Mr El-Masri’s return to Europe. 282. We have since received confirmation from CIA insiders that Albania was indeed the country to which the Agency opted to send Mr El-Masri from Afghanistan. We were told by these American sources that originally the CIA had asked “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” whether it would accept a “reversal” of the January 2004 rendition, but that this approach was instantly rejected: “You can imagine that was the last thing the Macedonians wanted! They had no reason to take the problem back.” 283. The CIA’s second choice of Albania was favourable from a geographical point of view since it opened the option to drive Mr El-Masri to the Macedonian border immediately upon arrival and thus set him free in a state of disorientation that might diminish his credibility if he went public with his story. From a policy point of view, Albania has also proven to be a willing bilateral partner in providing the United States with a “dumping ground”230for its unwanted detainees in the “war on terror”. At least eight former inmates of Guantánamo Bay remain stranded in Albania231because their refugee status does not allow them to go home to their families. 223. See El-Masri statement to United States Court in Alexandria, 6 April 2006, at p. 21. “Sam”, a German-speaking official who accompanied Mr El-Masri on this flight, told him that he “would eventually land in a European country but that it would not be Germany itself”. 224. The military airbase in question appears to have two variations on its name: the first is Bezat-Kuçova; the other is Berat-Kuçovë. The airbase is denoted by the ICAO code LAKV. It is situated in the south of Albania, between the towns of Vlorë and Korcë, about 40 miles (64 kilometres) south of the capital Tirana. The airbase underwent a comprehensive renovation and upgrade between 2002 and 2004 in order to bring it into line with NATO standards, as part of Albania’s NATO accession process. 225. See Appendix No. III to this report, entitled “Relevant flight logs from the Marty database”. 226. Submission No. 02-292.7-525-6/06, “Report on flight movements”, prepared by Mr Dorde Ratkovic, Director General, Directorate for Civil Aviation in the Bosnia and Herzegovina Ministry of Transport and Communications, Sarajevo, 17 May 2006; attached to the letter to me from Mr Elmir Jahic, Chairperson of the Bosnia and Herzegovina delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, Sarajevo, 14 June 2006. 227. Permission No. 292.7-361/04 issued by Hasan Hedzepagic, Senior Adviser for Flight Authorisation, Directorate for Civil Aviation in the Bosnia and Herzegovina Ministry of Transport and Communications, Sarajevo, 26 May 2004, sent as a fax to “Richmor [sic] Aviation”, United States; attached to the letter to me from Aljosa Campara, Secretary General of the Bosnia and Herzegovina delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, “Report on flight movements – copies of permissions issued”, Sarajevo, 8 January 2007. 228. We were familiar with Richmor Aviation as the operator of the aircraft with the tail number N85VM, which was used in the CIA’s rendition of the Egyptian cleric Abu Omar on 17 February 2003. See Appendix No. 4 to the Marty report 2006, “Flight logs related to the rendition of Abu Omar”. 229. Quite apart from the fantastical route, the N982RK aircraft’s maximum flight capacity of six hours fifty-two minutes, as listed in the “data strings” I have obtained, would make it impossible to complete this journey. 230. The phrase “dumping ground” is used by the United States lawyer of five Uighur Muslims from western China who were sent to Albania in May 2006 upon their release from Guantánamo Bay; see BBC News Online, “Albania takes Guantánamo Uighurs”, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4979466.stm. 55